Project Faust
by darkrogue1
Summary: Blake and Mortimer. London, 1990. When Francis Blake is abducted in front of him by three masked individuals, Professor Mortimer will accomplish the impossible to find him. Translation of "Le projet Faust" Beta-read and edited by Blackpenny
1. Abduction

I did not intend to start yet another story when I already had so many to finish.  
The weekend I started this I was sick, and as I begged my imagination to provide me with a nice story to cheer me up, it said,"Well, remember that idea you had three weeks ago? You're going to write it now!"  
"Yes, but ... it's a saga novel !"  
"That's the only idea you have right now that is neither explicit nor depressing, so get to it!"  
If you've already had the feeling of chocking on a story if you did not write it, you'll understand when I tell you that I did not have a choice.  
This is my final answer to the survey "Les héros sont-ils éternels ?" of the centaur club. Because no matter how many tragic scenarios I could imagine, none was entirely satisfactory.

* * *

Part 1 : Professor Satô's 4th Formula.

It's a day in March like any other, really, with its share of routine. Of course since they are both retired Blake and Mortimer no longer live at the same pace as before. Recently it feels as if this pace is slowing down even more. How long has it been since they last went abroad?

Old age is a shipwreck. Mortimer has the feeling that they have already hit the reefs. What a shame ! Mortimer regrets this beginning of the end somewhat, but after all as his body tired, his mind slows.

Today they are both on an outing in town, and at a crossroads in Picadilly Mortimer lingers on the sidewalk while Blake crosses, to look at an unusual object in a window which has caught his attention.

Suddenly Mortimer raises his head at a screech of brakes.

A large, black, American car has pulled up alongside Blake' at the zebra crossing, its doors wide open, while the captain looks at it dumbfounded from the sidewalk. Instantly, two dark figures approach and grab the captain while the third remains behind the wheel.

Blake struggles and Mortimer rushes to his help, ignoring incoming vehicles

But the captain is rendered powerless, despite his years of training. He barely manages to pull one of his attacker's hood in a last defensive gesture as the other one knocks him out.

Mortimer freezes mid-step, suddenly petrified.

He knows that face.

From time to time when he is tired, he still expects to see it in the mirror despite all the adventures that have taken place, despite all the time that has passed.

This face mocking him, maybe half a century younger...

...is his !*

* * *

* No, not Olrik's!


	2. Mobilizing

Cryptic prophecy for Mortimer.

To solve what is at hand you have to leave

To go forward you must go back

Trust in the past and dive into the future

Use gifts from friend and foe alike :

Only you have the key

A.R.

* * *

Despite his haste, by the time Mortimer finishes crossing the two men have already taken the unconscious Blake on board the car that has taken off at full throttle. Mortimer looks around him at the few passers-by and the traffic. There is nothing to be done! Whatever he does now they are already far away!

Francis!

Mortimer rushes into the nearest shop. "Call the police! My friend has just been abducted!"

Mortimer has informed police the police as they came on scene but all they could do was document some tire marks and question the professor and some witnesses.

There's nothing else to be done, but as his adrenaline drops, Mortimer gets more and more worried. Even if the police know about Blake's former job and the implications it may have, he would feel much better if the captain's former colleagues could be questioned. After making his statement, therefore, he asks to use a telephone.

Mortimer cannot forget the face he saw. In his statement he made a fairly accurate description of the abductor, but did not specify that it was his face. The last time he was confronted with himself was in Japan twenty years ago.* Had Professor Sato produced new androids in Mortimer's image? Was his research once again compromised? In that case, why him? Mortimer believed that there had been no survivors of the helicopter and submarine explosion. Did Olrik survive? Was this his revenge? **

When he calls the MI5 office to contact David Honeychurch, the man is not there, but by stressing the urgency of the matter, he manages to obtain his mobile phone number.

"I asked not to be disturbed this morning!" The first words of the current head of MI5 are not very welcoming when Mortimer finally reaches him. Behind him the professor can hear a car engine and echoes of a conversation.

"Mister Honeychurch, Professor Mortimer here." Mortimer introduces himself immediately to avoid being hung up on.

"Ah, it's you Professor Mortimer!" There is something strange in his tone, but the professor pays no attention to it, intent on getting his message across.

"Blake has been abducted!"

"What!" Captain Honeychurch exclaims. The conversation behind him has fallen silent. "I'm listening, professor."

Once again Mortimer relates the events, but this time he doesn't withold the unmasked abductor's identity or his suspicions about Professor Sato's involvement.

"I see," Honeychurch says when the professor finishes his tale. "I'll take care of it personally. You'll have my all the help I have to give to find the captain, I swear!"

The chief of MI5 pauses and then resumes, "I'll mobilize my teams, in the meantime can you contact your colleague? I think you're close enough to ask him for an explanation?" Mortimer agrees. "Rest assured professor, we will find him, even if it means achieving the impossible."

Mortimer is slightly calmer when he hangs up, but he remains upset. Francis! Abducted in front of him! He takes a cab home, then prepares to call his Japanese colleague, the cybernetician, Professor Akira Sato.

"Good evening dear colleague, I'm sorry to disturb you this late but..." It is past nine in the evening in Japan, but Professor Sato is still awake when Professor Mortimer contacts him.

"You have not disturbed me at all, Professor Mortimer. I'm very happy to receive your call. You seem tired. The last time we talked on the phone your voice felt younger."

"Alas, that's the weight of my worries." In a few words, Mortimer summarizes the situation to his colleague.

"Captain Blake, abducted!" Sato exclaims.

When Mortimer tells him of his suspicions, Sato grows serious. "I did not create any android like those recently and all those in your image have been destroyed, but I... kokoro atari, Mortimer *** I would like to tell you about my latest invention, but certainly not on the phone. How do you feel about a trip to Japan? I think you should come to see me."

* * *

* See Mortimer versus Mortimer, 2nd volume of Professor Sato's 3 Formulae.

** I personally like the idea of Out of Hell from Blackpenny.

*** Kokoro atari: Japanese expression to express a convinced intuition. This is the moment when one thinks "I know what happened / I get it." but without any rational explanation: it is the heart's choice.


	3. Reveal

In the plane that takes him to Japan, Mortimer worries without end. There's been no news of Blake, not the slightest sign since his abduction. It's as if he had disappeared from the map. Captain Honeychurch had meant to be reassuring when he accompanied him to the airport, but the professor knows that in this kind of disappearance the first twenty-four hours are crucial and they are long past.

His reason tells him that he can do nothing else, that it is the best choice to see for himself what Professor Sato could have invented. Yet, he is worried sick. Between this and the fact that commercial plane travels are increasingly busy, he's unable to get even a moment's rest.

When he finally lands in Tokyo, and goes through customs, Mortimer wonders briefly whether he should look for a taxi. He had warned Professor Sato of his arrival but did not think to ask if Sato could organize his transport. This is how disturbed he is!

It turns out that he needn't have worried: in the lobby a young woman stands holding a large sign on which his name is clearly visible. He comes forward to greet her.

"Hello, Professor Mortimer, my name is Mimiko Sato. My father sent me to retrieve you."

"I'm delighted to meet you, Miss Sato, I did not know that the professor had such a charming daughter." The compliment comes easily to him from years of habit. "I did not meet you on my last trip to Japan."

The young woman smiles and explains as she directs him to her car: "At the time I was still in school, and I lived with my mother. My parents are divorced. I've only become closer to my father since getting my degree. "

"Ah, of course, please excuse me." Mortimer understands only too well the difficulties a scientist absorbed by his work has dealing with a family life.

"Not to worry, professor. Have you had a nice trip?"

"Well, I am not sorry it is almost over."

A little more than an hour later, their car takes them on a familiar road to Professor Sato's house "Umino Ie".

"My God!" exclaims Mortimer, surprised at seeing the buildings, "it looks like nothing has changed!"

Mimiko Satô smiles slightly. "My father has had everything rebuilt the same way. He is very much a traditionalist."

Once out of the car, they cross the garden to a waiting Professor Sato. Upon seeing him, Mortimer opens his eyes wide with astonishment. Everything is the same as in his memory; almost nothing has changed. In twenty years, Sato barely seems to have aged five!

" _Konnichi wa_!"

"Hello, I'm delighted to see you again, my friend, and in such good health. It seems that you have been spared the weight of the years."

"Thank you." His host invites him inside the house and offers him slippers. "Would you like to take a rest after your long journey?"

Professor Mortimer shakes his head. "To be honest, your few words on the phone have piqued my curiosity, I'd rather listen to you. Your lastest invention?"

Professor Sato smiles and signals his daughter, who grabs the professor's suitcase. "I'll take you to the laboratory, and Mimiko will join us there."

Professor Sato leads Mortimer past the elevator going down to the laboratory hidden in the cliff, as he explains: "My daughter is a doctor of medicine, specializing in plastic surgery, and my lastest invention is also partly hers."

He leads Mortimer through familiar corridors to a large room which has been separated into compartments. Every item of machinery and electronics is modern and at the same time of a totally different kind from the robotics installations that were there almost twenty years ago. "Thanks to one of her ideas, we found that the formula I was using to create the skin and the surface tissues of my androids are compatible with human tissues and allows the recreation of new cells in this medium."

"But this is not new and other teams do just as well with other types of grafts," Sato continues. "Our invention is rather the fourth formula that adds to my three formulas of chemical robotics and adapts their _application to humans_.""

"Do you know the jellyfish _Turritopsis nutricula_? It has the peculiarity of aging in a loop and thus gains access to _theoretical immortality_. This fourth formula is actually a serum that associated with re-generated organ transplants helps to _slow down the effects of aging_ and potentially reverses them!"

The room in which they arrived contains a chain of tanks and tubes filled with a pale liquid before which Mortimer remains transfixed.

"What? You mean to say you have discovered the secret of immortality?"

"In theory only: you can see the effects of regular serum use on myself, but I have not yet dared to apply the entire procedure to a human being, and have contented myself with rejuvenating a few guinea pigs."*

"By Jove, it's amazing!" Once again, Professor Sato's invention gives Professor Mortimer the impression of being in the middle of a science fiction story.

Suddenly he understands what Sato wanted to tell him! If not an android, the abductor could have been an adult clone or even a rejuvenated version of himself!

* * *

* No, not Olrik.


	4. Decision

Do you know Robert Heinlein? If you don't, go read his works! If you only know Starship troopers and you don't like it, don't let that stop you, there's much better! In no particular order: Starman Jones, Citizen Of The Galaxy, Have Space Suit Will Travel and not least the whole saga about Lazarus Long whose best known example is Time Enough For Love. Personally, I discovered his works in my Harry Potter period when I was following a yahoo group called WIKTT as I searched for the reference behind a fan-art. Besides (unrelated) if you read fanfictions on this universe, there is one story I can't recommend enough : The Arithmancer and the follow up Lady Archimedes by White Squirell. (What if Hermione had never stopped learning mathematics ...) All this to say that this story is inspired by a scenario by Robert Heinlein, whose foundations are laid out in Time Enough For Love (1973) and which is executed in To Sail Beyond The Sunset (1987).

* * *

Professor Sato then shows Professor Mortimer what is going on behind the scenes, the machines embedded in the walls and the controls on the other side of them, leaving Mortimer time to gather all this information in his boiling mind.

"Oh, what is this?" Professor Mortimer notices a paper lying on the floor, bends to pick it up and sees a few words scribbled in Japanese writing.

"Ah," Sato answers. "It's a note that was pinned on this door, Mortimer. It reads, 'Do not use for ten years.' It must have fallen when we decided to use this room to store some equipment. The first time I saw it was just after we had the villa rebuilt after the fire and I respected the instructions. But the strangest thing is that it's my handwriting and I don't remember drawing these characters."

A solution is gradually taking shape in Mortimer's mind, but he still doubts; he doesn't want to prematurely transform his hope into conviction. "Are you sure that no one but you and your daughter are aware of your breakthrough?"

"Of course, my friend. I would also count you as well as all the guinea pigs, but the secret is well kept, you can be sure of it."

Slowly, Mortimer speaks the conclusion that these few words have crystallized. "You're telling me that I saw myself, that you used your procedure on me, and that I went back to the past."

Professor Sato, imperturbable, barely raises an eyebrow. "Mortimer, you were the one to tell me that you had already traveled in time."

"Yes, of course." Mortimer is already deep in thought. Would it be feasible? The machine invented by Miloch has disappeared, destroyed in the Bove's explosion. Mortimer has only bits and pieces of information to rely on. A few years ago he researched some of the theory behind the chronoscaphe and he had seen the inside of the time selector circuits at the time, but it would take months, if not years, to recreate all that! At his age, he wonders if he still has this time, but if Sato's invention works and can win him this delay!

Yes. That must be the solution. If it was neither an android nor a clone, it must be himself that he saw. Already he draws up plans, begins to mentally take notes on the phases to achieve. He will have to draw a flowchart in order not to forget any key step**.

But then Professor Mimiko Sato comes to join them to explain the more medical details and Mortimer lets himself be guided by his hosts whose explanations only reinforce a resolution he has already taken.

* * *

* See The Time Trap.

** About temporal journeys : "it's a tiny bit complicated. People usually need a flowchart." Dr. Who (The Husbands of River Song)


	5. Rejuvenation

The Professors Sato are enthusiastic about having a human guinea pig for their experiment and taking a risk for science doesn't bother Professor Mortimer.

"The risk is low," he argues, "I've seen my future younger self. It means that your experiment will succeed. Don't worry."

Mortimer is an optimist. He has not even considered the possibility that Satô could have sent an android in his image to replace him.

After all, now that he has the solution to finding Blake - who is ultimately not in danger - and that this devil of a Sato offers him eternal youth on a platter, Mortimer is not going to complain. Even if he has to go a long way without his friend, he has an eternity before him to join him; and then, he is remembered that way in the XXIIst century, isn't he? "A second doctor Faust"* he read in his biography during his journey through time.

Mortimer therefore begins the slow process of rejuvenation. The months pass and the professor clenches his teeth and endures the successive operations, throwing himself into his reeducation as soon as he has recovered sufficiently, ignoring the pain. All those new muscles have to learn to move!

He also begins to organize his operation to find Blake. Code name: Project Faust.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" He asks one day.

His friend shakes his head seriously. "You know that with my reputation, travel abroad is complicated. Let's not talk about an unfixed term travel. Mimiko will accompany you to monitor your convalescence, and I will be available by phone, but I cannot reasonably accompany you. "

Mortimer adapts his plans accordingly and champs at the bit. As the procedure progresses, he feels his youthful energy return to him; it had been years since he last felt such an ardor at work and he is eager to be reunited with Blake.

One day, as his transformation is well advanced and his rejuvenated face has recovered a red stubble, the professor exclaims suddenly as he looks in the mirror. He will never pass the controls at the airport with this appearance! He's going to have to ask for a new passport. Another setback!

* * *

A few days later, Mimiko Satô accompanies him to the embassy to have his papers redone. The young woman supports him in his still hesitant gait to the counter where he greets the employee:

"Hello, I'm here for a passport application."

To the professor's great astonishment, his interlocutor replies almost immediately after looking at him. "Yes, I remember, please wait, I'll be right back." And leaving a stunned professor, she goes to another room from which she emerges a moment later with a passport in hand.

"There you are Professor Mortimer, please sign here." Mechanically, Mortimer signs the paper and finds himself holding his new passport.

After taking his leave, he emerges from the embassy still at Mimiko Sato's arm, but she has perceived his turmoil: "Is everything okay, Professor?"

Mortimer is still astonished as he answers, wondering when the hell he could have made the request for those papers in his temporal organization: "I think I'm going to need a bigger flowchart!" **

 _To be continued in the second part: Miloch's Legacy._

* * *

* see the Time Trap  
** still and always Dr Who


	6. Preparations

_Part 2 : Miloch's Legacy_

Back in London, Professor Mortimer and Mimiko Sato move into the big empty flat in Park Lane, but even if it is the most comfortable place to live in he uses the small secluded house in Newham as a laboratory for his work again. He needs space to build his machine and even during the initial design phase, at his drawing board, he cannot concentrate in his flat's office.

It is because everything there reminds him of Blake, or rather of his absence, and distracts him from his occupation. Since his return to England, Mortimer has only dared to enter his friend's room once in order to retrieve his passport. After the "abduction" he intends to persuade his friend to return with him to Japan to also partake of professors Sato's miracle cure. The absent personality was everywhere and Mortimer had fled, closing the door behind him. He hasn't opened it since.

The weeks and months pass while Mortimer works at the resurrection of the chronoscaphe first invented by his enemy Miloch. During this time his companion documents his tremendous recovery and convalescence, and prepares the medical file for the publication of this major discovery.

Mortimer's progress is slow and he regrets more than once not finding the plans completed on his desk in the morning. But it seems that he did not push the vice of temporal loops this far, because it is by the sweat of his brow that he finally finishes his work.

The day he finishes the construction and the last connection of the circuits, he warns his companion and decides to leave immediately.

The chronoscaphe is narrow and does not hold any luggage, and the only two seats are occupied by the time travelers. Their passports and wallet in their pockets and their clothes under the special suits are the only goods they carry with them.

One moment, Mortimer sees himself decades earlier at the controls of such a machine and fears to get lost in time again. But this time he is not alone and he knows this invention to the smallest bolt. It is with resolution therefore that he pulls the starting lever after setting the time selector a few years (already!) back up to one month before the date of the abduction, leaving them a little time to organize the details.

How short is the journey! A few seconds and that's it, they're back in February a couple of years ago!

That evening they stay at the hotel - Park Lane is occupied of course - and Mortimer is almost relieved. The worst is over! But the commando he saw had three people. This must still be arranged.

What remains is to convince the third man.


	7. Contact

The next day, Professor Mortimer arms himself with a telephone and calls the current head of the MI5's office, at the hour when he knows the latter comes on duty.

Everything goes off without a hitch and he is quite quickly put in communication with the man he wanted to call. "Hello Mister Honeychurch. Mortimer here."

"Good morning, Professor. To what do I owe such an early call?" Mortimer's voice must not have changed much since his rejuvenation as Captain Blake's former deputy has no difficulty recognizing him.

"I have a problem that requires your help, as it concerns Blake and is right up your alley, but it's a long story. Could I meet you to explain what it is all about?"

Honeychurch must have noticed from the professor's tone that the matter - even if it did not seem urgent - was serious and he doesn't hesitate to accept immediately.

"Early this afternoon?"

"Whenever you want." When you have a time travelling machine at your disposal, you aren't too picky. But Mortimer must also prepare David Honeychurch to listen to his incredible story and for that he wants to get all his ducks in a row. "If I may ask, are you familiar with the story of my short disappearance in France in 1960*?"

Apparently he is because Mortimer can hear a sudden intake of breath on the other end of the line. "Don't tell me you're going to get the captain in the same state? I was the one who temporarily replaced him when he fled to France. The atmosphere was horrible!"

"No, no, don't worry, I'm only speaking about the technical details. Your French counterpart should be able to tell you if ... "

But Honeychurch interrupts him. "I'll look up the file. Anything else?"

"Would you mind if Miss Mimiko Sato came with me? It's not a necessity, but ..."

"The cybernetician's daughter?"

"Herself." Mortimer did not expect Honeychurch to recognize the name, but obviously he also remembers the events that had marked the adventure of his three formulae.**

"Don't tell me that Olrik has returned again!"

"No, not that I know of, and I pray for it to stay that way," Mortimer reassures him, "but you will find my appearance slightly changed since our last meeting, even if I can tell you that I am not a robot."

"Professor Mortimer, you worry me," the head of MI5 answers. "Well, come at 2 p.m. and we'll see then."

Mortimer thanks Honeychurch and takes his leave, hoping that he will be convincing enough.

* * *

At the appointed time, David Honeychurch receives the two time travelers in his office and under secure guard.

If he is surprised at Mortimer's appearance, he barely lets it show. "Come in Professor. Just by seeing you I understand that this story must be very complicated."

Mortimer nods, sits in an armchair facing Blake's former deputy, and starts immediately. "First you must know, to give you the context, that I'm coming from your future."

Honeychurch, who has done his research, is not too surprised. "Far?" he asks.

Mortimer shakes his head. "Less than three years." Then he explains. "It all starts with Blake's abduction in March this year, in exactly one month."

"What?" This time Honeychurch is thrown off, but he recovers fairly quickly. "Oh, I guess that's why you've come to me."

Mortimer nods and resumes. "As I was telling you, when Blake is abducted and disappears without a trace, he manages to unmask one of his attackers." So Mortimer begins the long account of the months that have passed for him since then.

* * *

* See the Time Trap

** See The Professor Sato's 3 Formulae


	8. Code Chicago

"Unbelievable," Honeychurch concludes once Mortimer has finished his narrative. "Forgive me, professor, but even if all you have told me is plausible, you bring no evidence, and your appearance does not help to prove your identity."

Mortimer nods. That's what he had feared, unfortunately. "Alas, I have nothing concrete at my disposal."

The head of MI5 puts his hand on the bottom of his face, looking pensive. "You said your machine was in Newham?"

Mortimer nods. "Yes, I can lead you there if it would convince you."

Honeychurch straightens up. "I'd like to take you at your word on that. Miss Sato can stay here while we are gone." Seeing her nod, the old man picks up his phone. "Mrs. Biggs, let the sergeant in, take out two cars to accompany me, and initiate a Code Chicago for me, will you?"

As the sergeant who was waiting in the next room enters, the head of MI5 orders him: "Watch over Miss Sato until I come back. She must not remain alone under any pretext." Then turning to Mortimer, he invites him to leave the place with him. "Follow me, Professor."

When Professor Mortimer and Mister Honeychurch arrive at the laboratory, finally, it is with an imposing military escort. Other troops very quickly join the two cars Honeychurch had requested and Mortimer, curious, inquires: "A Code Chicago?"

"Assuming that what you say is true, you have left an invention of this scope in quite an unprotected place, professor,"* Honeychurch explains, "at the mercy of anyone who could upset our temporal line, modify our past?"

Mortimer clears his throat, feeling slightly embarrassed. "Well, yes, the machine is accessible and easy to handle, but I'm not sure that the danger is so great. I didn't push the theoretical calculations very far - I was focused on practical application - but time is relatively stable: one possibility is that what is passed has already happened, and that if someone has come back modify it, it wouldn't change anything of our perception of it. The other possibility is that a modification of the time frame would make the author pass into a parallel universe, again without any impact on the people of the universe he is leaving."

"Well, Professor, I'd rather be careful," Honeychurch retorts, unperturbed.

Once they arrive, after the soldiers have quickly secured the place, Honeychurch finally contemplates Mortimer's Chronoscaphe in the almost empty laboratory. Seeing as his gaze lingers on the accumulated dust, Mortimer justifies himself: "I have not used this place for years." In comparison, the machine shines with newness.

"So that's your vehicle."

Mortimer eagerly explains how it works to Blake's former deputy, and seeing that the latter stares: "Would you like a demonstration?"

"With me?" Honeychurch asks.

"Or any other person of your choice," Mortimer replies. He understands very well that the head of MI5 doesn't trust him completely.

"Hmm, well let's go," he finally decides. "Bring me back, though. A few hours should be enough."

It doesn't take long to get ready. The suits are loose and easy to put on and the Chronoscaphe does not need to be warmed up. Soon the two men are ready to leave and, once Honeychurch has given some additional instructions to his men, they launch themselves in the meandering streams of time.

* * *

"Your invention is phenomenal, Professor Mortimer," Honeychurch marvels when they return some time earlier in an empty lab.

"It is Miloch's invention," Mortimer answers, modestly. "I only replicated it."

Shucking off his suit, the head of MI5 takes out a large portable telephone that he had brought with him, after checking that it still works, orders one of his subordinates to come and fetch them. Then he turns to Professor Mortimer.

"I'm worried about its safety though, and you'll let me move it to a safer place, I hope." From his tone, it is not a question. "Would you agree to work for us and finish these theoretical demonstrations, or to entrust your research to another team?" This, however, is a question, and one to which Mortimer willingly accedes.

"I think it would take a few brains and I will be happy to collaborate with the team in charge, but let me find Blake first. It's by pursuing him that I have come here."

"Of course, professor, you will have my full cooperation on this subject." He takes a moment's reflection and resumes. "You say we have a month, so let's start organizing and let me settle the details. Meanwhile, you will guide my teams to dismantle your Chronoscaphe for transport, and you will stay in our premises. "

Mortimer smiles, "So you're holding us incommunicado?"

Honeychurch also smiles. "Professor, you've figured it out!"

* * *

After returning to the Intelligence Service's headquarters, Honeychurch and Mortimer witness the end of their earlier exchanges in the office, and join Mimiko Sato and the sergeant as soon as their duplicates have left, to the stupefaction of the sergeant.

"Well, we have some preparations to make. Miss Sato?"

"Yes?"

"If I understood correctly, Professor Mortimer and you want to accompany Captain Blake to Japan once we have extracted him. Prepare a list of what might make your journey easier and the technical elements you will need for his rejuvenation. Also, list the skills you have that would be useful to our commando." Then he turns to Mortimer. "Professor, please write down absolutely all the details of the abduction you can remember. Let's try to be accurate since the stability of our universe is uncertain."

Mortimer nods and takes paper and pencil to obey.

"As for me," continues Honeychurch, "I'm going to prepare a list of the points that I think are necessary. We'll put all this together in fifteen minutes and we'll go from there. Let's start."

And so they all throw themselves into the preparations of this undertaking. The stakes are crucial: to make sure that if Francis Blake is to be abducted, it is by them and in a controlled universe.

* * *

* I have no idea what the possible emergency codes would be, but the first atomic pile was tested in Chicago under the viewing stands of the University's American football stadium in 1942 (Enrico Fermi) and a Code Fermi or Peterson seemed too obscure to me. In January 1943, Major Arthur V. Peterson ordered the dismantling of the Chicago pile and had it reassembled at the Argonne National Laboratory because he considered that the operations on a reactor were too dangerous to be carried out in the heart of the city of Chicago.


	9. Abduction (again)

Finally! It's D-Day! After many discussions and debates, they finally agreed on a plan; the commando team's members and all the material questions are settled. There was no way Honeychurch would miss an opportunity to knock out his former superior, nor did Mimiko Sato intend to sit on the sidelines now after taking part in the rest of the adventure.

To facilitate their task, the head of MI5 has had Professor Mortimer and Captain Blake followed this morning but the information was accurate and, right on time, it is their big black car driven by Mimiko Sato which stops abruptly in front of Francis Blake.

It's almost too easy. They have the element of surprise, Honeychurch's training (he has not yet left active life), and Mortimer's experience coupled with new youthful energy on their side. Blake is quickly rendered helpless and as he grabs at Mortimer in a last try at self-defense, Mortimer makes no attempt to stop his friend from snatching off his hood.

Unmasked, he turns to the place where he knows he is standing stupefied, and faces his past.

How old and tired he looks! The professor has quickly become used to his new appearance and he smiles considering all that this adventure has brought him. Certainly, he has missed Blake, but now that he has recovered him, it shouldn't be a problem any longer. Taking a last look at his past, he helps Honeychurch carry Blake's unconscious body into the car and they hit the road immediately.

"You can slow down, now," Honeychurch tells their driver once they have turned out of sight at a street corner. "No need to attract more attention than necessary."

Mortimer, on the other hand, contemplates his inert friend on his right, and tries to grapple with his emotions.

"Are you sure you did not hit him too hard?" he asks Honeychurch, who is sitting on the other side of their captive. It's been a few minutes with no movement from Blake, and he's worried.

The head of MI5 smiles ironically in response. "Oh no, just enough, I think. He has already been awake for a few minutes and is listening to us. Am I wrong Captain Blake?"

Mortimer remains stunned for a moment and then grins widely as he sees the captain open his eyes, his face closed and resolute.

Blake turns to his right towards the person who spoke last and suddenly freezes with astonishment, his eyes widening as he recognizes his former deputy. "David? But what ..."

Mortimer lets out a happy laugh. "It's a long story, my dear a very long story."

Bewildered, Blake turns to his left, whence comes the voice he knows so well. "Philip?"

Blake's incomprehension is easily understandable: Mortimer's appearance has changed a great deal, and he was still in the company of his friend a few moments ago - with a very different physiognomy then. The captain can't stop gaping.

"It is I, Francis," the professor continues, ignoring Blake's surprise, "and if you'll allow me, I'll prove it right away."

As Blake doesn't make any movement to stop him, Mortimer leans over to whisper in his ear the secret known only to them that they had decided on as a sign of recognition after the fiasco at the Universal Exposition of 1958.*

Immediately, Blake shakes off his torpor and his eyes begin to sparkle with new energy. "It would seem that adventures keep following you, old man," he remarks. "Would this one have a connection with a certain Mr. Miloch?"

Mortimer smiles. "Quite right, Francis, quite right, but probably not in the way you mean it as I come from your future."

"What?" Given Mortimer's appearance, Blake had assumed his friend was coming from his past, perhaps a development of his disappearance in 1960, which he had wanted to talk about at the time.

"Indeed, Francis,I come from your near future; less than three years. Now, since we are here, I will be able to present to you the third member of our commando unit, Mimiko Sato, who travelled in time with me. "

Indeed, as they were conversing they had arrived at the IS's headquarters and, at the moment when the professor speaks, they are just passing through the gates.

Once out of the vehicle, as promised Mortimer presents his travelling companion to Blake.

"Delighted to meet you Miss Satô. Are you related to Professor Akira Sato?"

"He's my father, Captain," the young woman answers.

Mortimer speaks, responding to the scrutinizing glance that Blake then gives him. "You don't have to wonder, Francis. I did not transfer my consciousness into an android, I'm still made of flesh and bones!"

Honeychurch interrupts their conversation. "Come, let's go inside, where we can speak further without risk of being overheard."

* * *

A few minutes later, the commando team members have quickly changed, exchanging their black uniforms for more usual clothes, and as Honeychurch has gone for a few moments in his office, the professor sits down and begins to explain his long odyssey to his friend.

"It's an abridged version, my dear, but I'll have plenty of time to tell you the details later. Everything begins today, when you were abducted, under my eyes, by a team of three people with black hoods. In your struggle, you managed to unmask one of these people. Imagine my surprise in recognizing my younger face! After contacting the authorities my first reaction was to contact my friend and colleague Professor Sato, fearing that his formulae has been compromised again. On the phone he assured me that this is not the case and invited me to join him in Japan to tell me about his latest discovery that could be related to this case, since he didn't want to reveal anything to me by insecure means.

"Still without any news of you - it's as if you had disappeared into thin air - I decided to follow the only clue I had and go to Japan. And there, I discovered that professor, sorry, that professors Sato had discovered a rejuvenating serum and developed a procedure to give a body its youth back!

"Then I realized that the person I saw could have been me, provided that I went back in time! I therefore accepted Professor Sato's offer to play the guinea pig, and return to London - with Miss Sato to watch over my health – to resume my researches on Professor Miloch's invention.

"I did all this to make sure that if you were to be abducted, it wouldn't be by anyone else, and here we are!"

Blake nods. "And what did you plan next, Philip?"

"Well, I promised Honeychurch to assist his team in furthering the research on how time travel works. I must say that I only tried to rebuild the machine and did not linger on the theoretical calculations. But this can all wait ... "

"He confiscated the machine," Blake deduces, and behind him, Captain Honeychurch, who has just returned to the room, chimes in.

"Of course, captain. Would you have done otherwise?"

Blake shakes his head thoughtfully. "Probably not, no."

Mortimer then speaks again. "Francis, I'd like you to come with me to Japan. I still have some things to settle there, and the professors Sato offer you the chance at their experimental cure as well." Seeing Blake begin to nod, he hastens to add, "You don't have to agree to this medical experiement right away! It involves risks. Wait to be informed!"

"Come on, Philip! Since you've done all this to find me, could I do any less to have a chance to spend more time with you?"

At that moment, Honeychurch glances at his watch and interrupts them. "So, gentlemen, miss, if you're all in agreement it's time to set out for the airport."

* * *

This time they have a driver and the head of MI5 sits in the front beside him. Again, Mortimer tries to warn his friend.

"Seriously, Francis, talk it over with Miss Sato. This procedure is long and painful, and it is not without risks."

"You underwent it yourself!" The captain retorts.

"For my part I was certain of its success since I had seen the result with my own eyes."

During this conversation, Honeychurch's cell phone rings and he answers as the friends talk.

"Ah!" he says suddenly, looking back and raising his finger to hush his companions. He gives the professor a significant look and speaks, "It's you, Professor Mortimer!"

Even knowing that this phone call was coming, Mortimer still feels disturbed to know that it is he on the other end of the line. What a strange sensation. And yet, he will have to get used to it if he has to live with his double in Japan, even without ever meeting him.

* * *

Honeychurch accompanies the three passengers to their boarding gate without hindrance and bids them farewell.

"Will you be all right, captain? Is your headache too much?"

"Don't worry, David, I've had much worse. And don't forget, Professor Mimiko Sato is a doctor."

"Well, then. See you soon, Captain, professor, miss."

"Thank you for your help, Mister Honeychurch," Professor Mortimer says in turn. "I'm counting on you for the rest until we return."

"Of course, Professor. Have a nice trip."

And, this time accompanied by Francis Blake, Philip Mortimer and Mimiko Satô travel back to Japan.

* * *

* See The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent and The Gondwana Shrine


	10. Renewal

This time their trip is spent in a relaxed atmosphere and upon their arrival the three travelers take a taxi to go back to the villa on the cliff by the sea, _Umi no ie_ , where Professor Akira Sato and his daughter are waiting for them.

It is strange, at first, to see someone in duplicate but Mimiko Sato - the oldest - does not stay permanently at the house. She goes back to her work and returns mainly to participate in the procedures and to share her advice and experience.

Francis Blake has decided to try his luck and follow the treatment and, since Professor Sato has been warned in advance and has prepared all the necessary equipment, he is rejuvenated in the room next to the one where Mortimer himself has become younger - right on the other side of the wall.

Once Professor Mortimer - the one they left in London – joins them, Philip Mortimer takes good care not to venture into the house's common areas where he could meet himself during his waking phases. The procedure is serious and hence the constraint isn't too dire: the convalescent professor barely leaves his room.

While Blake follows this same treatment, Mortimer tries to ignore his anxiety by plunging into his work. In a part of Professor Sato's library set aside for two decades, he reconstructs Professor Miloch's time machine again. *

* * *

This time everything goes faster: he already has the plans and it is only a matter of mechanics. When it is finished, Mortimer asks professor Sato to pen the notice he must post on the door of this part of the laboratory back in the past: Do not use for ten years. This way he will make sure that in the present there is room to install both the chamber where Blake undergoes his transformation and the space necessary for the Chronoscaphe's construction.

During a period when his friend is unconscious, Mortimer makes the trip, leaving both Professors Sato in suspense in front of an empty room for a few minutes. He does not encounter any obstacle in this new expedition to the past and when he returns to his new present, it is with the relief of having accomplished all which was necessary to organize his adventure.

* * *

Towards the end of Blake's metamorphosis, when the latter has regrown a mustache worthy of the name, Mortimer takes his picture and contacts Honeychurch, both to inform him that everything has gone well and to ask him for the help he had promised for this last detail.

This is how he goes back to the embassy to bring in the pre-filled forms for new passports for Blake and himself. Honeychurch will ensure that they are ready in time and back-dated, so that Mortimer doesn't get into trouble when traveling in the past.

* * *

* No, Honeychurch does not know.


	11. A treasure which contains them all

_Ah! I laugh to see how lovely_

 _I look in this mirror!_

 _Is it really you, Marguerite?_

 _Answer me, answer me quickly!*_

 _Gounod Faust Act III scene 6_

Ah Faust! What a tragedy ! Rather than wealth, power or glory, our heroes get the treasure which contains all the others, youth! And who wouldn't do the same in their place? As for me, whatever the adventure, I prefer when time is stable, even looped with paradoxes: Whatever must come, comes at the appointed time*! (as sung by Jacobs) Concerning Faust, I would be hard pressed to answer to the Gretchenfrage, being much closer to the temperament of Marthe Schwertlein than to that of Marguerite. If I were asked to rewrite a happier end to this opera, I would make it so that Faust asked Mephistopheles to offer Marguerite the same present as the one he got, a lasting youth, instead of the treasure even more wonderful and splendid than those she sees in her dreams*. And if she wants to accept it, I'll leave them both in good company with the devil ... but that's what I did here, didn't I ?

* * *

A few weeks later, Blake has undergone the last procedures and his confinement ends. Still weakened by the ordeal and slightly staggering, he comes to stand in front of the long, full-length mirror that has been prepared for him, and contemplates his reflection.

He scarcely recognizes himself! He has regained his appearance from half a century ago!

Blake shakes his head, incredulous but admiring the miracles of science, then smiles. His body is still weak but he feels once more the energy of the powerful instincts of youth.

He hears footsteps in the corridor and Professor Sato enters the room by the sliding door, carrying a tray bearing a bottle and a quartet of glasses which he sets down before closing the door behind him.

"What are we celebrating?" Blake inquires.

"Your rejuvenation, of course," Sato replies, "and the success of these first experiments."

The captain nods. "And where are Mortimer and your daughter?"

"They went to pick up your passport at the embassy this morning and have just come back. I think I hear them coming."

Indeed, footsteps and voices resound in the corridor and soon both Mortimer and young Dr. Sato enter the room.

"Hello Francis, I'm happy to finally see you standing," Mortimer greets him as he enters. He shakes his friend's hand and hands him the passport from his pocket.

Captain Blake takes the document and leafs through it briefly before putting it away.

"So what's the plan, now?" Blake asks, while Professor Sato fills the glasses.

"Well, I'm awaited in London, but there is no hurry," answers Mortimer. "We have still time."

"I was thinking of showing you some of my favorite places in this country before you leave it," Professor Sato says, "since you could not stay at your last visit **. I don't intend, after you have come from such a long way, to show you the door. "

As Blake and Mortimer express some interest, he goes on: "Why don't you spend a few days at the hot spring resort in Hakone? Captain Blake could extend his convalescence while we wait for our other Professor Mortimer to go back so that I can come and meet you there."

"You should taste the Kuro-tamago while you're there," Mimiko Sato teases, "to give our treatment that many more chances to be long-lasting."

And as the captain looks quizzical, she explains: "They are eggs that take on a black color from sulfur when cooked in the springs. Consuming the eggs is said to increase longevity by seven years each."

Finally, they all have a filled glass in hand and toast to their health, with bliss in every eye.

"To health!"

"By Jove, yes! May it last a long time!"

Professor Sato then thanks Professor Mortimer for his gift of the chronoscaphe. "You offer me freedom, Mortimer, I'm so constrained by my temporal obligations."

"As an exchange for youth, I don't think I'm losing out!" the professor answers.

"It seems to me that scientific progress makes winners of us all, " Blake remarks.

"Well, let's toast to science then!" Mortimer raises his glass. "As one of my favorite sayings goes: Science and patience are the key to everything."

"To science!" Sato answers, also raising his glass. "And may it serve us as much as we have served it!"

(THE END)

OWARI

* * *

* See Faust, by Gounod, as well as for the other 10 references of this chapter

** see The Professor Sato's 3 Formulae.

* * *

There it is ! I tried my hardest not to bore anyone.*

Many thanks to Freric of the CentaurClub for transcribing the Master's words. They comforted me at a time I was despering to finish this story

"Especially as this myth interests me. That's to say, it's this thing about rejuvenation, and I don't know, there is something that I would almost want to put in one of my stories. "

"D'autant plus, que ce mythe m'intéresse, enfin c'est ce truc de rajeunissement, et je ne sais pas, il y a quelque chose que je voudrais presque mettre dans une de mes histoires." E.P. Jacobs


End file.
